Not surprisingly, the USPS isn’t the only postal service facing financial trouble. Canada Post said it had a before-tax loss of $27 million for the first quarter of 2014 as Transaction Mail volumes declined by 6.9 percent and as Domestic Parcel volumes grew by 4.9 percent.
Together, the decline in bills and statements being mailed and the growth driven by online shopping reflect Canadians’ continuing shift in the use of postal services, the agency said.
In the first quarter of 2014, parcel revenue for the Canada Post segment increased by $23 million, or 7.1 percent. Domestic Parcels, the largest product category, continued to show positive results as revenue increased by $14 million and volumes grew by more than 1.2 million pieces, or 4.9 percent, compared to the same period the prior year.
Transaction Mail is mostly letters, bills and statements. Transaction Mail revenue decreased by $50 million, or 6 percent, in the first quarter as volumes fell by 79 million pieces, or 6.9 percent.
Canada Post announced a Five-point Action Plan in December 2013 designed to help it achieve sustained financial self-sufficiency by reducing costs significantly.
“The five initiatives are: to convert roughly five million households with delivery at the door to community mailbox delivery over five years; to adopt a new approach to Lettermail pricing; to expand the convenience of the retail network; to streamline operations; and to address the cost of labour.”
The USPS recently reported a net loss of $1.9 billion for its most recent quarter, the 20th quarter of the past 22 in which the agency has finished in the red.
More information on Canada Post financials is available on its website.
